Interesting article, I look forward to reading the book. I saw Dean on Jon Stewart Last night. This description of conservatives is accurate, but the question is why are they like that? My pet theory is that xenophobia is a natural genetic trait in all humans. This genetic tendency is far stronger in conservatives. Conservatives, like gays can’t help the way they are. Now if we can just find a more constructive way for them to channel this natural tendency. Lighten up, the world doesn’t have to be that scary.

It is still too early to say that GOP is in panic. The whole drama of a first Veto by this president could have been orchestrated by Rove to make the president morally strong for his hard core base. Do not underestimate this administration. They know how to twist all issues to their favour.

My observation of American politics for the last 5-6 yrs is that the general public themselves have become blind to the damage this administration is causing. Until the electorate turns smart and sees through their lies and machinations, articles such as yours and many more exposing Bushs faults is useless and is lapped up only by people who already know the truth!

Regarding Xenophobia... I've always liked the lyrics of the song from right in the middle of Rogers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific":

You've got to be taught

To hate and fear,

You've got to be taught

From year to year,

It's got to be drummed

In your dear little ear

You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid

Of people whose eyes are oddly made,

And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,

You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,

Before you are six or seven or eight,

To hate all the people your relatives hate,

You've got to be carefully taught!

Regarding the idea, "the president is never wrong." King George III must be smiling at us from the afterlife knowing that his rebellious American subjects are finally, after all these years, fully under the thumb of a George who claims the absolute power and Divine Right to rule of a king such as George III himself. And they elected him themselves! Twice!

Unfortunately the world is a very scary place to live in. The president is a child who has never grown up and he has very scary uncles and aunts to look after him seeing as he does not consult his father on vital issues. His behaviour around the German leader yesterday reminded me of a video clip I saw on YouTube recently where POTUS was in a TV studio between commercial breaks and failing to find a piece of tissue handy to wipe his spectacles he instead chose to wipe them in the tail of a female TV assistants jacket! He found this to be quite humorous and seemed to convince everyone else to go along with his childish behaviour. I wonder if he is doing drugs again?

Why would we gays need any "help" for the way we are? Just couldn't let that one slide.

Sidney Blumenthal, your articles are always so illuminating about the Bush cabal's motives and tactics, and they damage they cause. Thank you.

Caught that too even though I'm straight!

So I'm sure, then, all would agree, when it happens, that a Democratic president is infallible too. The he or she is always right, that whatever they say is real IS reality - just like this president. I can't WAIT for all the lovely agreeing by the Republicans in Congress with the next Democratic infallible president. Gosh, it's going to be SO great!

To Don: And yes, can't let the gays "can't help the way they are" comment slide. It presumes they each have a flaw they can't "help." What a stupid, offensive comparison. Why use gays? Why not say "Republicans, like Blacks, can't help the way they are."

I wish I could believe that the veto was an indication of weakness on Bush's part. But Bush is not running for office, his congressional flunkies are. All that vote is is another carefully calibrated photo-op for the benefit of us gullible voters. Now, every Republican scumbag can go home and say "see I'm not Bush's poodle after all".

If you don't believe me, just ask yourself: is it really a coincidence that the Senate is just a couple of votes shy of overriding the veto? Doesn't that smell like all those votes in the House of Representatives orchestrated by Tom Delay that passed on a majority of one or two votes?

No, this is just old Bush and his rubber stamp congress winking at each other. No moral conscience at work here, because these folks have none.

George

Blumenthal cites social-science research suggesting that 20-25 percent of Americans have authoritarian personalities (which is to say, they are unsuited for political life in a pluralistic democracy; they literally cannot understand what democracy is about). That number sounds right to me, but it raises another question: Why are such people either more numerous or more influential in America than in other countries? Because they clearly are: No other advanced nation has a significant political faction that opposes stem-cell research or the teaching of evolution, or that seems to believe that the nation's head of government is always right.

I suspect that the research would also show that authoritarian personalities are most numerous in the southern American "red states." (Less so in the western red states, where Goldwater came from -- as an article in the current Atlantic Monthly explains, the politics of those states tends to be conservative, but libertarian rather than authoritarian.) Historically the South was a plantation society, extremely hierarchical and slow to adopt all kinds of modern institutions and folkways, including capitalism. It remains a drag on American politics to this day. In its defense, the South -- or its ruling elite -- did recognize its difference from the rest of America and try to set up its own country. Lincoln wouldn't let them. If he had, the infallable George W. not only wouldn't be president, he wouldn't even be an American citizen. Perhaps the North's success in the Civil War was additional proof of that old saying: Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.